Christmas
‘I will die protecting this country’: Kemi Badenoch on where she plans to take the Tories
‘It’s like a start-up,’ Kemi Badenoch explains of her new job, as she plumps down on a sofa in the…
What I learned at Santa School
Whenever my son’s primary school ring up, they have, very sensibly, a calming form of words: ‘It’s the school here…
What The Spectator taught Benjamin Franklin
Christmas came early this year. No, I’m not moaning about the carols that my local café started piping at the…
My rules for church readings
It is that time of year when people in churches across the land have to face the difficult question of…
A Christian revival is under way
This is my second Christmas as a Christian. As an atheist, I had dismissed the bright lights and customs of…
Christmas on patrol with the Royal Navy’s submariners
This Christmas, a Royal Navy Trident submarine will be quietly prowling the seas as part of the Continuous At Sea…
How pagan is Christmas?
Many people today feel an ambivalence towards the history of the Christmas festival. They sense that it has deep pre-Christian…
Carols are much weirder than we think
Why, my sharp-minded colleague Tom Utley once asked after a Telegraph Christmas Carol service, should anyone think God would abhor…
Leavisites should stay away: Sky’s Bad Tidings reviewed
Reviewing Sky’s The Heist before Christmas last year, I suggested that all feature-length festive television dramas begin with credits announcing…
Chanel should be led by a woman
Since I’m considering giving a small Christmas drinks party, I’ve been reading all the festive entertainment features. There are recipes…
Who can afford to send Christmas cards any more?
At this time of year I’d usually be writing dozens of Christmas cards, with a Snowball to hand, heavy on…
Cold turkey: is a Christmas tradition coming to an end?
When I recently asked younger work friends about the prospect of turkey for Christmas dinner, it was greeted with grim…
Four times Boris said this Christmas would be better than last
‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…’ Or it certainly was until Omicron intervened. For the latest Covid variant has…
It’s not up to Boris to save Christmas – it’s up to us
How well-behaved have you been in the second year of Covid? I wouldn’t say I’ve been perfect but I haven’t…
The moment I fell in love with music
I’ve lived in Chelsea for the past 35 years. Since 2002, I’ve photographed everything I find interesting here — churches,…
The torment of a tasting menu: Hélène Darroze at the Connaught reviewed
The Connaught Hotel’s formal dining room was always, to me, a place of childish myth; more comforting for being mythical.…
Stratton resigns – but the row isn't over
The row over the Downing Street ‘party’ has claimed its first victim. On Wednesday Allegra Stratton announced that she was…
Why the No. 10 Christmas 'party' story matters
It’s crime week for the government — with Boris Johnson and his ministers set to unveil a range of measures…
The forever ‘war on Christmas’
It seems to get earlier each year, doesn’t it? It’s not yet even December, and the Mail on Sunday has…
Lockdown creations: the best of the year’s cookery books reviewed
‘I may, one day, stop making notes and writing down recipes,’ Nigel Slater says in A Cook’s Book (Fourth Estate,…
What exactly is the ‘festive season’?
‘Here you are, darling,’ I said to my husband. ‘These lines might have been written for you: “Drinke, quaffe, be…
Why Christmas sends a shiver down my spine
Does Christmas send a shiver down your spine? It should. We seek at this time of year to reclaim the…
Christmas raises the most basic political question
A few years ago, around this time of year, I overheard a nice exchange in a charity shop (I was…
The grumpy genius of Raymond Briggs
No one captures better than Raymond Briggs the ambivalence that many of us feel towards the festive season, says Daisy Dunn
